The Uncommon Life

Common: Underestimating the impact of communication, community, and creativity in the digital age.

Uncommon: We all know this century has seen an immense amount of change in a very short period of time. Some of these changes are creating completely new social and interpersonal consequences and some are merely amplifying age-old tenets of success.  What is most often overlooked and underestimated, however, is where the new and the old collide.

Amidst all of the change, I continue to see three timeless principles increasing in importance and impacting our personal and professional lives in new ways. I call these factors the 3 C’s of modern currency.

Why “currency”?  Applied effectively, these skills will pay their weight in gold. It’s now time to rate yourself – each ‘C’ ends with some discerning questions. And if you believe these 3 C’s don’t impact you, ignore them at your own peril.

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Common: Assuming the common explanation is the best and only explanation.

Uncommon: As humans we desire closure. We long to know not only what has happened but why it has happened. Whether it’s gossip, a natural disaster, a freak incident, or a success story – we want the 411. We want to know how ‘it’ can be repeated or avoided.

… so we endeavor to explain it.

This seems simple enough. But that is the problem. It appears so simple to analyze the WHAT that we feel we can accurately explain the WHY – the reasons something has occurred. This is more dangerous than one might think.

By assuming we have ‘the’ answer or more accurately, a definitive explanation, we often do several things that change the course of future actions and future outcomes. We…

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Common: Believing that focusing on detail is the only and best path to success.

Uncommon: Let’s be honest: Most things studied in college are quickly forgotten.  I believe this is partly due to the sheer number of concepts addressed per class, per semester. In my experience, the emphasis is often on breadth versus depth. This poses a challenge to students studying for comprehensive tests.  I know; I’ve been there many times.

But I didn’t have the “luxury” of making the library my second home to spend hours on rote memorization. My time was very limited and so I sought ways to perform better by doing less. In the process, I made a simple, yet liberating, observation.  And whether you’re a student or not, I have found this concept critical for success in life.

The eclipsing effect of detail:

Traditional college advice places an extremely high level of importance on detail, but this train of thought can be a hindrance, at times resulting in increased stress and workload. Why?

An extreme focus on detail limits one’s ability to grasp the larger picture, which is critical to knowing what details to focus on. When you’re very close to every concept, everything appears important.

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Common: Assuming that the status quo always prevails.

Uncommon: The “uncommon life” can mean many different things to different people. And sometimes you stumble upon individuals who cannot be placed into an existing mold or stereotype.

These people are the outliers, the change agents, the disruptors of the status quo. Whether we see eye-to-eye with them or not, they serve an important purpose: to encourage us to reexamine our more calcified paradigms about what life ‘is’ or ‘should be.’

One of these uncommon individuals is Colin Wright. He may appear to live life “against the grain” but he never set out to “prove” anything except the fact that life truly is what you make of it.

The following is a thought-provoking  interview with Colin Wright, by yours truly. It’s a look into a life full of travel, constant change, adventure, and geo-arbitrage. While it’s longer than usual, it’s well worth the read. Enjoy…

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Common: Assuming that a college degree offers the best and only path to a guaranteed job, more income, and a secure future.

Uncommon: The perception of an “educated” person will likely be very different in the future. For the past few centuries we have placed our faith in schools and universities to provide us with skills and information that will improve our lives. High schools and colleges used to offer graduates coveted badges of personal aptitude.

This model has worked for a long time. But times are changing.

As more and more people (employers and graduates) recognize that many degrees lack relevancy, they begin to question what a degree actually represents.

For this reason, the discussion surrounding conventional education is changing and intensifying. This is a good thing because as the price to value of education continues to diverge, people need to think seriously about their goals and how to best position themselves for a promising future. Conventional education may be one path, but it’s certainly not the only one.

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Common: Doing everything or nothing under the label of “student” – often leading to either burnout or dropout.

Uncommon: As I mentioned in Part 1 and Part 2, “This week marks an important milestone in my life. I am no longer a full time student of conventional education.”

In this final post of the 3 part series, I explore the last 3 uncommon tips I learned while marching through my conventional college education.

8. Do not waste downtime – and there is a lot of it.

Only on a few rare occasions did I do school work on weekends (and this was usually because of business commitments during the week).  If time is used wisely, schoolwork need not dominate all areas of your life.

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Common: Doing everything or nothing under the label of “student” – often leading to either burnout or dropout.

Uncommon: As I mentioned in Part 1, “This week marks an important milestone in my life. I am no longer a full time student of conventional education.”  Since the last post, final grades were announced, and it looks as though I will graduate magna cum laude.

This comes as quite a pleasant surprise considering the demands of my “extracurricular” commitments. Of course there are always students that make me look like an underachiever, but my approach and my goals differed from many students and valedictorians.

I never set out to get perfect grades. In fact, I clearly intended to place business and personal preferences as a priority. This was rather unusual in undergraduate school. My competitiveness kept me striving for good grades, but my lack of time kept me focused on effectiveness. Unexpectedly, this illogical amalgamation served me well.

Truthfully, I don’t believe I could have earned the grades I did following conventional college advice. In fact, I believe that doing less, studying less (see tips 1, 2, and 3 in Part 1) and applying these 10 tips, contributed most to the outcome (it certainly wasn’t a natural gift for academics). And perhaps even more satisfying is knowing that these lessons can be applied in the professional world very well.

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Common: Doing everything or nothing under the label of “student” – often leading to either burnout or dropout.

Uncommon: This week marks an important milestone in my life. I am no longer a full time student of conventional education. Elation abounds. It’s back to business full time.

Anyone who knows me or reads my blog will know that I often wrestle with the concept and quality (return on time and money) of conventional education. Looking back, however, I did learn some key things – it just so happened that the majority of my most valuable “education” took place outside of the traditional curriculum.

Despite having a full class load (and sometimes more), I spent the majority of my time managing my businesses and engaging in extracurricular activities. This heavy load was a blessing in disguise. While overwhelming at times, it forced me to reexamine and scrutinize my approach to school – seeking maximum efficiency for time invested.

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Common: Accepting the beliefs and behaviors embedded in the status quo as accurate “best,” “right,” and unchangeable.

Uncommon: There is immense value in being able to think and act independently in a world of conformity and convention – in fact, all innovation and novelty depend on it. It can be challenging to free ourselves from the explicit and implicit forces that keep our brain in the box, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

Not surprisingly though, I am frequently asked, “How do I think and act independently when I am bombarded by constant influences and pressures to conform and/or think in a certain way?” This is an excellent question.

But first, you may be wondering how I view “conformity” in this context. More accurately, I mean social conformity: adhering to a set of very broadly cast beliefs, rules, and habits.  And “convention” follows suit: “a set of agreed, stipulated, or generally accepted standards and norms.”

Both serve very important roles in society at times, but the danger lies in the uncanny correlation each has with complacency. Nature’s default setting is the path of least resistance, so just like visiting the gym, it takes an ongoing effort to maintain a creative and original edge in life.

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Common: Dreaming of a life of travel while working for yourself.

Uncommon: There are a lot of people who fantasize about traveling the world and working from anywhere on their own schedule. Few people actually do it. Natalie Sisson is one of these adventurous, risk-taking souls. But, according to her, she wasn’t always this way.

We crossed paths on an entrepreneur retreat in the middle of the Costa Rican rainforest in 2009.  After learning more about her background and her renewed passion for entrepreneurship, we stayed in contact and I’ve been observing her already impressive list of adventures only grow in number. Today, I’m reaching out to her all the way to Buenos Aires—her newest hotspot (well, for a little while anyway).

KH: In a few sentences, what’s your life story and how did you end up working full time from Buenos Aires?

NS: I’m a Kiwi entrepreneur, passionate about getting more women into business, travelling the world, and playing Ultimate Frisbee. I left New Zealand in 2006 to go and live in London for 2.5 years. Following that I moved to Vancouver, Canada, to play in the World Ultimate Frisbee Championships. I was determined to start my own business after almost 10 years working in the corporate world of brand marketing, product management, and new business development.

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Common: Going through traditional daily motions and working from habit rather than effective strategy.

Uncommon: On New Years Day I chose a theme for 2011: Adventure over comfort and convenience.  This involved setting some rather challenging goals considering the limited time I have available. To my surprise, however, pursuing these additional goals boosted my productivity.  Now at the end of the first quarter of 2011, I’ll share some of the things I have learned that will hopefully help you do more of what you want as well.

To add some context, below are some highlights of things I have done in the past 60 days:

• Traveled to: San Francisco, Dominican Republic, Boston, New York, Beijing, and Singapore (working and sightseeing at each)
• Finalized a 10,000 word ebook (available soon)
• Processed over 3,000 emails
• Read 3 books
• Personally rebranded and designed TheUncommonLife.com
• Personally designed my next (3^rd) upcoming blog: 25tolifeblog.com
• Managed and given guest speeches for Cool Stuff Media Inc., my publishing company
• Managed The Lost Boys Project, LLC, my real estate company
• Posted several new articles to TheUncommonLife.com and MaximsForMavericks.com
• Written several guest articles for YoungEntrepreneurCouncil.com
• Exercised 4 days a week (on average)
• Taken 3 weekend trips to San Clemente to visit friends and family
• Taken a full load at USC (essays, speeches, and midterms) and maintained my position on the Dean’s List

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I don’t believe anyone sets out in life to be mediocre, ordinary, or “common.” Deep down, we desire more than that, but all too often we give in to the weight of social obligations, others’ expectations, personal fears, and the allure of low hanging fruit.

It goes without saying that “settling” is the choice of least resistance and therefore, the path of the common folk. But despite the odds, there are always some who stand boldly in the face of life’s challenges and temptations.  Not surprisingly, they achieve the extraordinary and become exceptional.

It’s not difficult, nor worthwhile, to list the ingredients of the common life. But it’s always beneficial to explore the anatomy of life’s inspirational anomalies.  In a few short minutes, I came up with 53 different, but complimentary, factors of a remarkable person.

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